Weapons
Honest John and Corporal Rockets
Honest John Rocket Corporal Rocket The Ordnance Corps responded promptly to meet part of the Hodge board’s recommended requirements with a special-purpose large-caliber rocket, later known as the Honest John.9 Conceived in 1950 as a direct-support atomic weapon carrier and fielded four years later, the 762-mm. Honest John was a solid-propellant fin-stabilized supersonic free-flight rocket developed by the Douglas Aircraft…
Most Recent
V–1 Missile and V–2 Rocket
V1 Cruise Missile V2 Rocket The well-known German vergeltungswaffen (vengeance or retaliation or revenge weapons) were a last-ditch stand to stave off defeat in 1944–1945 by means of pilotless bombs that could be launched against London and other Allied targets. They reflected an interservice rivalry, with the later Luftwaffe V-1…
Rocket Research in Germany (World War II)
The A-3 rocket at the static test stand in Kummersdorf. Rockets had been used on both sides during World War I. Afterward, the Allied victors lost interest, focusing research efforts on tanks, planes, and other somewhat successful weapons from the war. Germany, however, continued to pursue rocket research. The Verein…
DUKW
The DUKW was used in landings in the Mediterranean, Pacific, on the D-Day beaches of Operation Husky, Normandy, but also during the Battle of the Scheldt, Operation Veritable and Operation Plunder. Its principal use was to ferry supplies from ship to shore, but it was used for other tasks, such…
INFERNAL FIRE ARROW
The first incendiary missiles were arrows wrapped with flammable plant fibers (flax, hemp, or straw, often referred to as tow) and set afire. Burning arrows of these materials could be very effective in destroying wooden walls from a safe distance. Indeed, Athens was captured by flaming hemp arrows in 480…
British 13.5-in railway guns
A side view of the 13.5-inch Railway Guns ready for loading. The design of this carriage was the last ever produced for a British railway gun, and was considered to be among the best ever produced anywhere, but only a few were produced in 1918 and none after that. The…
War and Science -French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era.
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier The longstanding connection between war and science in the West intensified during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. Armed forces depended on scientific and technological expertise in many areas. Different service branches had different needs. One particularly marked by dependence on science was the artillery, since it was…